Actress Dame Helen Mirren thinks Queen Elizabeth is a 'survivor'

Dame Helen Mirren thinks Queen Elizabeth is a "survivor".

The 75-year-old actress - who won an Oscar for her 2006 portrayal of the British monarch in The Queen - believes the 95-year-old ruler is used to "drama" and after living through World War II, she'll be able to overcome her current struggles, including the recent death of her husband, Prince Philip, and apparent rift with grandson Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex.

Mirren said: "She's had drama all of her life. [The Queen] had huge drama all of her life. When you think that when she was in her early teens [it] was the Second World War … what could be more dramatic than that? I mean, what would have happened to that family if the Nazis, if Germany, had won that war?

"Yeah, it really, really looked as if Germany was going to win that war. So, you know, this is a woman who's been through an extraordinary life of change, of drama, of tragedy, of triumph … She's a survivor."

The veteran actress was delighted to finally get behind the wheel in "F9" after admitting it felt like a "cruel hoax" to learn she wouldn't get to do any driving in her role as Magdalene "Queenie" Shaw in either 2017's "The Fate of the Furious" or spin-off "Hobbs and Shaw".

Dame Helen Mirren. Photo / Getty Images

And it was particularly exciting because she got to do so outside of the royal residence of Buckingham Palace in London.

She told the New York Post newspaper: "I was so excited when they first said, 'You've been [cast] in the 'Fast & Furious' movie. Fantastic. Finally, all my whining and moaning and begging worked. And then, of course, I was in the back of an ambulance in the first one.

"The second one came. 'Oh, brilliant. Finally now, now I'll get to drive one of those super cool cars.'

'Oh, no, you're in jail. So I'm afraid, No, you're not going to be driving anywhere.'

"[But this time] not only am I driving, I'm driving down the Mall towards Buckingham Palace. It's amazing.

"I mean, the last time I went to Buckingham Palace, I went to get my dame[hood]. I went in the back of a very smelly taxi. So it was astounding. It was just so exciting."